Echo Park history up in the air

Bulldozers and demolition crews recently leveled several decades-old buildings in Echo Park in preparation for the construction of a towering, block-long the senior retirement complex across from Echo Park Lake. The only building to be spared was a Craftsman-style apartment house (pictured) built in 1912 near the corner of Glendale Boulevard and Park Avenue. The structure is an increasingly rare example of the many shingled and wood-sided apartment buildings built during the first quarter of the 20th Century. The developer – Foursquare Foundation, an affiliate of the Angelus Temple – agreed to spare the structure after negotiations with the city and Echo Park Historical Society.* A man with the house moving company said today that the building will soon be moved to a church-owned lot at the corner of Echo Park Avenue and Park Avenue. That’s only a temporary location, however. It’s not clear where the 98-year-old building will find a permanent home or be preserved.

* The Eastsider is a board member of the Echo Park Historical Society.

7 comments

Thank you Jesus for helping to preserve a bit of our history. I find in these older neighborhoods there is a rush to demolish the old because it doesn’t suit today’s needs. What others see as not needed, others see the potential to preserve and find a “new” use to fit it today’s climate.

Very concerned with CRA wanting to “redevelop” in the particular Northeast areas in Atwater Village, Elysian Valley, Glassell Park, and Cypress Park. These communities have some wonderful buildings and I fear for their existence. New development should complement our communities not destroy.

And more importantly (in my opinion), they are irrevocably damaging the character of an historical neighborhood that was until only recently very intact. There is even a sign in the median where Glendale and Park fork, proclaiming the triangle “Heritage Square”, or something to that effect. What a joke.

They are terrible stewards of the land – further proof that property rights must be constantly tempered by extensive laws that preserve the greater good and look toward the future, in the face of human selfishness and short-sightedness.

Moses: If Angelus Temple is taking action that is keeping down property values, then I’m all for Angelus Temple! Property values are way too high, most especially in this area, even in this post-crash time. I find it utterly repugnant that someone would be advocating pricing people out, which is all you are advocating with this scream for property values to skyrocket.

I advocate that prices should come down more so more people can afford a house.

Unfortunately, Echo Park more than any other area has become just a collection of people looking to make a fortune on real estate. Pump the price, pump the price, pump the price, gouge and scare people into paying ever more, until the entire economy collapses because of it. It is just repugnant. It is NOT what Echo Park once stood for. Echo Park used to be good people, not just about avarice.

I know what they’ll do with the Craftsmen: Gut it, then turn it into parking space for their sheep to park their ostentatious Hummers. Fourquare won’t stop until they’ve turned all of Echo Park into a bland Christian Disneyland patrolled by born again ex-drug addict Brownshirts.

Yikes Tom – You clearly don’t own property anywhere so maybe your first investment should be a time machine. That way, general inflation and current property values wouldn’t interfere with your low expectations of Echo Park and your want for it to remain 80% below to poverty level. Yeah – That would be great and safe too.

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